Dorchester Square - History

History

Up until 1854, the square was little more than a public green and informal meeting place. Much of it was used for the Catholic Sainte-Antoine Cemetery, a hastily arranged cemetery for the victims of the 1851 Cholera Epidemic. In that year, the bodies were exhumed and moved to Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery on the Northwestern side of Mount Royal. In 1869, St. George's Presbyterian church was erected at the corner of Peel and De la Gauchetière. It spawned the construction of several other Protestant churches and cathedrals in and around Dorchester Square, which was beginning to take form as a dividing line between the estates and suburbs of the Northwest and the retail and commercial areas to the East and Southeast. The 1870s provided several massive projects which contextualized the green as a central meeting point, prestige address and formalized the use of the square. Land acquisition began in 1872 and the park took its present form in 1878. Simultaneously, the Catholic Archdiocese began construction of St. James Cathedral across from Southeast corner of the Square. Along the western edge of the Square, the Windsor Hotel was completed by 1878. With such prestigious construction and massive human traffic, the square became a vital component of the urban environment and a focal point for transit between the office and commercial sectors and the retail and suburban sectors.

In 1889, the Canadian Pacific Railway constructed Windsor Station across De la Gauchetière from St. George's Cathedral, further increasing the importance of the square as a major focal point for intermodal transit systems. Later construction would involve the demolition of the original YMCA Building (1851) and the construction of the first portion of the Sun Life Building at the corner of Metcalfe and René Lévesque Boulevard, which would grow to take up the whole eastern side of the Square by 1931. In 1929, the northern side of the square was graced with the Dominion Square Building, designed as an integrated shopping arcade and office tower. The arcade was specifically designed to draw pedestrian traffic between the square and Saint Catherine Street.

Additional construction after the Second World War would see the development of the Laurentian Hotel across the Southwest corner of the Square. In 1960, the original, southern section of the Windsor Hotel was demolished to make room for the Tour CIBC. The 1960s saw major developments as Dorchester Square became the central orienting point for the new downtown of modernist skyscrapers. As such, a skywalk was erected on the south side of the square, across De la Gauchetière to Place du Canada and the Chateau Champlain hotel.

In 1967, Dominion Square was divided into two parts, the southern portion being renamed Place du Canada while the northern portion retained the name Dominion Square.

After the death of René Lévesque in 1987, Dorchester Boulevard was renamed in his honour and Dominion Square was renamed after Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester.